I am Neon
Note: This story was born out of a challenge issued by Mark Ball of the Sci Fi Ideas web site. When he burst the Gas being bubble.(and boy did he... problem is there aren't any examples of a real gas being in SF literature (TV or Film) I could find. As all samples given were gaseous at best but not “gas” If we use the definition of established science and define gas as the one of the four classic states of matter. (Solid,Liquid, Gas and Plasma) No such entity has made an appearance in any story I could find. Now in the realm of fantasy or “Star Wars type Sci Fi” all I had to do is describe a fancy vapor made of handwavium and give it a personality and poff I have a gaseous sentient being, which is the desired core result of this little challenge. I thought all I really had ton do is go into my universe and pick one of my species that reside there and do not have a solid body. There are the Non corps of course, Dusty the Interstellar Dust cloud, There are the ghost like Antoo who are trapped between trans spatial conditions, However none of them are made of gas. There are the Bellebee where gas is an important part of their physiology, but they too are not made of gas alone (it is just a medium they use to float.) Then I realized there isn't a gas being in my entire universe. So I spend the last two nights going through my library of Sci Fi ( Books, comics, films). A library I am building since 1982 btw. Yet none of the gaseous beings and life forms I could find, were made of Gas. The next night spending a considerable amount of time, searching the internet...and all I could find confirmed the results of my previous search....lots of gaseous, vapor like beings. But nothing that could be used in a Sci fi Story (with an emphasis on Sci as in science) So by my own rules set forth as frame work for my “Galactic Chronicles Universe”, everything has to be at least based on a scientific plausible foundation. However thin that foundation is and whatever theory I base my stories and my worlds on, it has to be there. Now in that sense classical gas is out, but luckily we had Einstein and Enrico Fermi. I remembered a paper I read a while back on “Fermi Gas” and that unexplainable spark hit that compels me to write. So here is my attempt and entry : As with all my stories this one too takes place in the aforementioned Universe. The year is 5069 Old Terran Time. “I am Neon” © Vanessa Ravencroft 2014 -1- The D-20 Shuttle was tossed like a leaf in a gale force hurricane. The Arti Grav compensator were simply overwhelmed and that despite the fact, that this D-20 was specially designed for these conditions. The pilot behind the controls, a bald headed member of the Blue however seemed to enjoy the ride. Not so the only passenger of the shuttle, Dr. Desiree Bloch, from New Cambridge. Desiree was not a woman anyone would really notice. She was neither tall nor small; not beautiful but also not ugly. No she was like a gray sky over a foggy November meadow, simply dull and average. Her parents were just like many billion other Union citizens proponents of the Natural growth movement. Meaning no prenatal gene adjustments, no post natal beauty grafts or procedures that produced perfectly proportioned and beautiful beings. No she was all human and born the old fashioned way and left with what the collective genes of her family endowed her with. But that dull average appearance was only skin deep. Desiree was only twenty nine but already a member of the Hive of Minds. The aloft and by invitation only society of the brightest minds of the entire Union. Desiree was a genius. For the most part she was lecturing at the University of New Cambridge and held a senior chair in its Xenobiology department, and did not venture very far from University grounds. She hated traveling, as it meant to leave her comfortable cocoon of creature comforts that were so important to her. She liked all things to be orderly and well structured. The Blue turned . “No worries, we are almost there. The float base is well stabilized and you feel almost nothing of this planet wide storm.” She pressed her lips together and tried to concentrate on something else, as her stomach tried to send her breakfast back up. “Could we not have waited till the storm subsides?” “Technically yes, Dr. Bloch. However I am not sure if our combined life span is long enough for this to happen. This storm, according to our resident expert, is raging for at least 12,000 years and there are no indications it will stop any time soon.” “Did you say there is motion like this to be felt at the research station?” “Not like this, but some sway does get through once I n a while. The station is not a full size floating city or pump station. At least not yet.” The D-20 approached a balloon shaped object with a bright glowing gravo anchor at its bottom. The shuttle passed through the force field membrane into the stations hangar and settled down on a gleaming plasti-coated metal floor. Desiree had never felt more thankful for anything, at least for now she didn't feel any external motion as she staggered down the short rear access ramp. A rodent like being not taller than maybe 30 centimeters floated form the station access door, carried by a fight belt towards her. The Holdian mammal was accompanied by an almost eight meter long centipede like bio form, with its first segments raised upright, a Xiptin. Both beings, as different as they appeared had several things in common. Both were Union citizens, members of the Science Corps and well respected authorities in their fields of study. Of course both were also friends of Dedidree. The Xinpin had a face that could be described as a fruit pie with eyes and split into four equal sections. The entire face kept splitting appart, revealing a distinct alien throat, long tongue and razor teeth. This frightening display was actually just an emotional expression of delight and positive excitement.”Dediree, I am so glad to percieve you. I know how much you dislike leaving New Camnbridge.” Dediree actually wrapped her arms around the upright part of the Centipede and said. “How could refuse you? But before we go any furhter , I need to get to a hygene cell quickly or you will see what I had for breakfast.” The Holdian greeted her as well and guided her to siick bay. – The stations medic had given her something and she felt well and the sick feeling to her stomach was gone, but she still could not completely ignore the slightly moving iquid in her cup of tea. They all had gathered in a small conference room with floor to ceiling viewports currently set to opaque. Next to Desiree, the Xiptin and the Holdian who also was the station lead. There was a man in a business suit and the Blue pilot of the Shuttle. The Holdan station Commander was actually standing on the table wearing the marron colored uniform of the Sciece Corps and the rank insignia of a PhD 5. “Let me make this official by officially weloming you to Summer Breeze Station. I am Dr. Durner, you know of course Dr. Pocfram your Xiptin friend. Dr. Runif is our Bio chemist and shuttle pilot as you probably could guess. Now the gentleman here is Mr. Rotheles of SII Fuels and perhaps the core issue why you are here.” The SII man nodded towards Dediree with a perfect teeth advertisment smile. “Your reputation is stellar indeed Dr. Bloch and I am glad you could come. So we can put this ridiculous notion to bed and SII can start building the first scoop station. Summer Breeze is a Sub Jovian Ice planet with a violent weather pattern, dense atmosphere and lots of ice, water and hydrogen. Nothing special I know, but Summer Breeze happens to be the only system before the Orion Cygnus – Perseus gap. Do you know how many space ships and freighters make the long trip across the gap every day?” She shook her head. “More than ten thousand. A trip across the gap saves an even longer trip. You know the Road to Magellan starts in a system across the gap. Not everything can go by Space Train and I am sure you can imagine the flow of commerce and wares from and to the Large Magellanic Cloud.” Dediree had to admit it had to be a staggering amount. The man nodded as he saw what she was thinking. “Now every ship needs fuel and going across the void between arms is best done with full tanks and well serviced engines. SII wants this world and we are already investing billions of credits on the floater cities and refineries we are going to drop on Summer Breeze. So all this notion of Sentient life is nonsense.” “That is why I am here, Mr. Rothless.” The man got up. “I look forward to your findings then.” The man left the room. The Blue said.”This man gives me the chills. He is friendly and polite but I think he would not loose hs smile if he killed you.” The Holdian flicked his tail. “He is no different than the Enroe Industries rep that was here a month ago.” Dediree said. “Can we start atalk about the actual matter at hand that made it necessary for me to leave my beloved study at New Cambridge and get bounced and shaken like a coktail drink.” The Xinpin was sliding before the view port and the opaquness faded and revealed a swirling chaos of every shade of blue and gray. “Summer Breeze appears just like any other Ice giant. Well it is a tad bit more violent in terms of weather. It has quite interesting weather compared to other planets of its kind , due to the higher internal heating Although Summr Breeze lies half again as far from its sun thanlets say the Sol system planet Uranus, but receives only 40% amount of sunlight, because Sparke Bright is a nice KIII star but much cooler than good ol Sol. The upper regions of Summr Breeze troposphere reach a low temperature of -221.3 on the C scale At a depth where the atmospheric pressure equals 1 bar,. That is where we are the temperature is at a balmy minus 201 C and it gets warmer the deeper we go. This constant convection creates these extremely dynamic storm systems, with winds reaching speeds of almost 1340 mph, almost attaining supersonic flow. Most of the winds move in a direction opposite the planet's rotation.The general pattern of winds shows prograde rotation at high latitudes vs. retrograde rotation at lower latitudes.” Dediree raiswd her hands. “All this is indeed fascinating for a Meterolgist like you and since my expertise is in Jovian planet life forms, I am also somewhat of an expert. What you describe is nothing special and should be no reason from stopping BoCA to clear the world for utilization or SII from building their refineries. Since we made contact with the Bellebee we know gas planets can and do hrbor life. Heck we have 564 sentient Union members that developed on planets like this. There is an entire library with several million entries on non sentient life developing on planets like this. On my way here I went over your atmosphere samples and scans. I could only verify your preliminary findings, there is nothing alive out there.” The Holdian spread his little arms. “We would not have troubled you if it would be that straight forward. We wouuld have packed up and left and go to another planet, but there are two reasons we haven't left and called you.” The Blue flicked a graphic from his PDD into a field screen bubble over the table. These are energy patterns of the local lightning storms.” Dediree looked at it, “Nothing out of the ordinary really” Now a new image appeared, the Xinpin explained. “You look at a storm cloud, we call it Streaky.” “And? It/s just a storm.” “A an anti-cyclonic storm system spanning 13000×6600 km to be exactm but watch. The recording is time lapse.” Dedireemat first looked at it with mild interest, but then she blinked. “Did it just move against the wind diection?” “It not only moves but appears and re appears and not always Anti Cyclonic. Now watch the storm approaches another storm....it stops just outside the convection zone of the other and now reverses direction.” Dediree swallowed. “Physically imposibe. We are taking about gases here, real gases pf methane, oxygen and what not.” “Not just Methane , but dense pockets of Neon, and now look at this.” The lighting pattern now showing was not even a tenth of the energie of the storm before, but it was steady, constant and kept repeating. The discharges created by positive and negative charged gas concentrations of Neon. “Those patterns look exactly the neuro electric activitiy of a synaptic node net.” She whispered/. The Blue said “22 Million of these lightings firing in a precise timed pattern and charge other regions of these neon gas pockets . But there is not just Neon gas. Chcck the samples we toolk from one of these nodes. “Alcohol, Carbon strings. Thse are very complex molecule chains. But to thin spread out, nothing more than some mild natural air polution.” She sounded as if she needed to convince herself of something. “Are you proposingthat this storm is alive? Sentient even?” “It interacts not just reacts.” Said the Blue “What you propose is not only crazy, it is physically impossible, Did you detect any Transdim energy activties?” “No, we had Fleet scan the planet for a whole month and received two Kelpie drones.on loan.” “They let you hve Kelpies?” “Well they didn't give us any details or access to the actual drones, but we talking about Narth Tech here and so sensitive they notice a single pregnant super exotic Bosun particle coming or leaving. At least that is what the Science Officer of the Fleet explained “ Dr. Runif added. “Psionics.thought patterns?” “Nothing in terms of Psion energies, but we expecting a Leedei any day to arrive. “ The Holdian said., Dediree wiped her mouth. “So nothing but your conviction and observation that could be explained away, especially as it is impossible .How would a gas being control coheison, ,aintain some sort of center where information is processed. Those electric impules do not seem to center on anytning. No Ego center as the Non Corps have.,,,and they are not gas.” The Blue said . “That is why Dr. Pocfram called you. If there is such a life form out there, there is nothing like it in the known universe and this is their planet.” “Scooped and refined into fuel.” Dediree said. She got up. “Let's go and check that storm and do some radar tests. There must be some sort of center, some kind of vessel containing something other than just gas.” – Six days had passed since Dediree arrived at Summer Breeze. She too was now convinced there was a life form out there. Yet every test, every idea to proof that the storms were somehow alive failed. The SII man walked into the central lab where Dediree was pouring over the lastest chemical analysis of the polution component. “Dr. Bloch, are you able to finally sign the clearance? I gather your detailed research was about as successful as the previous attempts. SII has also conducted a detailed survey and we are prepared to approach the Assembly and ask for a vote.” Dediree snapped . “You can stuff that Survey of yours, anywhere you like, preferably up your...” She stopped herself just short of the profanity and added. “You would have asled the Assembly for a vote already if you were certain you get a positive vote. You know of course a No vote takes this workd forever out of your reach.” “Dr. Bloch, I assure you nothing is out of reach for SII ever. We are just law abiding and don't want to be in the way of science.” “Then I suggest you do exactly that. Get out of my hair.” The Holidian arriving as the SII man left. “The Leedei is here.” – Pt 1 Category:Fragments